Harthill Royal 2-1 Newburgh

Graham Strachan

Newburgh faced their first trip south of the River Forth on Saturday in the East of Scotland cup round two to play Harthill Royal.

Kyle Meaney and Sean MacBride returned to the squad alongside new signing Lee White, however several players were still unavailable for a variety of reasons.

Newburgh gave away a cheap free kick 20 yards from goal on the left on the 12th minute. The floated cross was met at the back post by Gardner who headed the ball back across the face of the goal to Johnstone who passed the ball past Sutherland to give the home side a deserved lead.

Harthill doubled their lead on the 20th minute.

A corner was driven across the box which was dealt with by Hall who headed the ball clear. Harthill’s Steven Weir was just outside the box and picked up the ball with a superb first touch, allowing him space to rifle a shot low into the corner of the net.

Half time came a bad time for Newburgh as they were looking the more likely side to score the next goal.

The half time team talk re-enforced this as Newburgh came out in the second period looking like a different team to the one that started the first half.

Newburgh’s pressure paid off on the 53rd minute with a goal from Lambert who had broken forward from midfield, a nice one two with White allowed Lambert to pick his spot and slot a right foot shot under Grier in the Harthill goal.

With 10 minutes remaining Hudson swapped MacBride for Meaney changing formation in an effort to find the equalising goal and take the game to penalties.

Harthill dug in and their experience showed as they played out the remainder of the game at their pace giving Newburgh little chance of grabbing the crucial equaliser.